Thumbs up, thumbs down

Published 5:54 pm, Monday, September 16, 2013

Thumbs up the anonymous creator of the Facebook page asking members of the Greenwich community to compliment people they admire. It shouldn't have been necessary, but the page has been a welcome antidote to the cowardly hate-speak that forced a memorial page for Bart Palasz, the 15-year-old Greenwich High School sophomore who committed suicide, to be shut down. There are no words for the vile behavior of anyone who would target people in mourning, but it is encouraging to see that Greenwich Compliments has been embraced by so many people. "We live in a society where we are all so quick to judge one another," the creator of Greenwich Compliments told Greenwich Time. "We judge so quickly, but we fail to remember that everyone around us is fighting their own personal demons just the same way we are. Everyone has something going on behind the scenes. Each and every one of us is insecure about something.

Thumbs down to Bobby Valentine for complaining on the 12th anniversary of 9/11 that the New York Yankees failed to pitch in following the tragedy. It would have been inappropriate even if Valentine had his facts right, but the Yankees made many appearances throughout the city at the time. It also leaves the bad taste of Valentine seeking to draw more credit for the numerous contributions he and his players made while he was managing the New York Mets.

Thumbs up to Greenwich students for scoring the highest tally in the state for semifinalists in the 2014 national Merit Scholarship Program. Greenwich High School has 17 students in the semis, while Greenwich Academy and Brunswick School each have three and Convent of the Sacred Heart has one. All of these students scored in the top 1 percent on the preliminary SAT.

Thumbs up to Miss Connecticut, Kaitlyn Tarpey of Stamford, who finished in the top 10 at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., Saturday night. "I'm ready to rumble," she declared before the competition, a reminder that she is, after all, from the city that the WWE also calls home.